Notes from a Battered Grand: A Memoir

The author leads us on a rollicking tour through the world of a nightclub pianist. The son of middle-class Jewish parents, Asher grew up during WW II in Worcester, Mass., where he studied classical piano but was quickly drawn to a musical apprenticeship in the city's seediest dives. Fascinated by the dynamic music of black performers, he pursued a career in jazz, which meant endless road tours, one-night stands at birthday parties and bar mitzvahs, and gigs in clubs, bars, hotels and summer resorts. Eventually he settled down as the house pianist at the famous hungry i in San Francisco, but before long his satisfaction in this measure of success was marred by the advent of rock, which attracted a young audience that had no taste for the music of his generation. Asher ( Raise Up Off Me: A Portrait of Hampton Hawes ), who is a novelist as well as a pianist, writes with breathless panache, capturing the bizarre, amusing and absurd events that fill the life of anyone rash enough to want to make a living as a piano player. (June)